Curse of an Animus
PROLOGUE Talons clinked on the ice as a dragon as pale as the ground beneath her slithered through the entrance to the cave made of ice. On the chain that hung around her neck she wore a single ring, her black eyes searching the shadows. “Blizzard, is that you?” a dragon rasped from the shadows, the first dragon started forward “yes, where’s the egg?” the pale ice dragon asked. “Right here” the other dragon replied, lifting a glacier blue wing. A silver egg lay in the curve of her stomach, it had a deep blue pattern of diamonds that danced across its surface, it glistened in the dark light of the cavern. Hail slammed down outside of the cave, smooth and rhythmic, yet damaging and forceful. “why did you come?” questioned the glacier blue dragon, “you know it will just be another boy-” “No, it won’t!” snapped Blizzard, cutting her off “Think about it Sleet, our egg looked exactly like this one, and it must be, Storm is dead, my seven other dragonets are boys, and you don’t have any dragonets.” Blizzard finished with a huff. “besides, the kingdom needs a new queen, I’m 95 and so are you, I can’t rule forever” “I kn-” crack. Sleet was interrupted by a splinter in the top of the egg. “give me my egg” Blizzard growled and Sleet carefully passed her the egg. Crack. More splinters appeared across the surface. A final crack sounded before thousands of tiny pieces of egg shattered across the cavern. A tiny white dragon sat in Blizzards claws. The scales on top of her head where a frosty ocean blue colour, her under scales were an extremely light shade of sky blue, so light they were almost white, as for her scales which shone a snowy white colour. She had little dark circles that surrounded her eyes, her horns were long and thin, they looked like icicles sticking out the back of her head, the frill of spikes around the back of her head where little miniature copies of her horns, the skin on her wings was the same light blue as her under scales. The spikes at the end of her tail and the spikes that ran down her back were the same icy blue colour as her horns. Blizzard gasped as she looked closer at the dragonets scales. Each individual scale, except the ones on her face, had a very beautiful, but very simple, pattern the colour of the circles around her eyes. The scales running down the centre of her back had a single dark blue diamond on them. All the other scales had little circles in a line across them, and the point of each scale had a circle. “she’s beautiful” Blizzard whispered. “what are you going to name her?” Sleet asked. Oh. Blizzard had been so mesmerised by her dragonet that she’d forgot to name her. She looked over her shoulder at the swelling storm outside. “Hail” Blizzard replied. 3 YEARS LATER… Hail wondered through the icy school grounds, her wings tucked in close. The crisp night air cold around her. The ring on her necklace bounced against her chest. Her black eyes scanned the moon globe trees that littered the school. She was meant to be asleep, but she couldn’t sleep. It was too cold. It was weird, though she didn’t tell anyone she didn’t like the cold, they would ask too many questions. She was an IceWing, and she hated the cold. Voices carried in the wind reached her ears. She was still a dragonet; she was one of the youngest at school. She hadn’t told anyone who she really was, what part of the first circle she was in, or who her mother was. In fact, lots of the other dragonets at school thought she had taken the other rings off her necklace. But if they saw the wall her mum had in the palace, they would treat her with more respect than what they do! As if she was the ice beneath their claws, that’s how they treated her now. The voices grew louder. Hail started to walk quicker. They grew closer, and louder. Until they stopped. A strong claw grabbed the back of her neck. “Hello, Hail’’ a dragon sneered behind her. She thrashed in their grip. “Go away Icicle!” she wailed. Icicle threw her to the ground. “Why?” Icicle asked. “Doesn’t the lonely little dragonet want friends?” he asked teasingly. His friends giggled behind him. “Friends don’t bully each other!” Hail whimpered. “And I already have friends.” She croaked. “Oh really? Where are they, In your head?” Icicle said teasingly. Hail shrunk into herself. “At home.” She replied. Icicle struck her in the face with his claws. Her breath stopped. That was another thing she never let anyone see, her blood. It was a dark red-blue, not a dark blue-purple like every other IceWing. Icicle didn’t even look at it though, he shook it off, onto the illuminated ice at one of his friend feet. They gasped in shock. “Ice-Icicle. Her bloods red.” They stuttered. Icicle grabbed her and pulled her into the light. She shrunk into herself even more. That was why she didn’t go into light either, some of her scales had a wired gold shine to them. Heavy wingbeats sounded overhead. “get away from her” the familiar voice of her oldest brother, Snowstorm, growled. Icicle looked up to see the crisp white IceWing descending upon them. He was at least twice their height. Snowstorm was 20-years-old, Icicle and his friends were only five. But all the while, Icicle held is ground. There was only a scavenger’s width between him, and Snowstorms glistening teeth. “What you gonna do about it?” Icicle sneered. Snowstorm seemed to double in height. “Do not challenge the name of Queen Blizzard!” Snowstorm boomed. Icicles Breath caught. 5 YEARS LATER… “Just… come back for the Moon festival!” Snowstorm called to Hail. “I will… wait, when is that again!?” she asked as she shoved some dried walrus strips into her pouch. “Just… Be back before Mothers hatching day! And go straight there! Don’t stop, unless you need rest!” he replied. She nodded, and with three powerful beats of her wings, she was air-born. Hail lied. She wasn’t going to school. Not just yet. It took one week to fly to Jade mountain, including the necessary breaks, but Hail left three weeks before school started. As soon as she was out of sight from her brother, she banked hard left. Heading straight for the village on the outer part of the ice kingdom. She knew what she was, even if no one else did. After centuries of dead magic in the IceWings, it had finally returned. Hail found out about her animus magic when she was 6, she had been racing through the icy hallway of the palace, playing chase with her best friend, North, when a crack sounded over her head. The wall started to drip, and fear raced through Hails veins, the roof started to crack, and like Hail always used to do when she was scared, she started to whisper, if only to herself, ‘go away, stop breaking, you’re not meant to break, your enchanted by an animus.’ And the roof stopped melting. In surprise she stepped back, then jumped out the nearest window, and flew straight to her room. Hail picked up a small metal chain she always wore around her front ankle. “I enchant this chain to keep the wearer warm and safe, no matter where they are” she whispered hurriedly to it, then slid it onto her ankle. For the first time in her life, she felt warm. She stopped in surprise. She was an animus. And no one could know. *** Hail stopped at a cave in the side of the icy mountain, she pulled out an earring, two small stones, a tail chain and a ring. She picked up the two small stones. “I enchant these stones to become rings exactly like the ones on IceWing ranking necklaces.” A few moments later, and two small rings, the same size as the one on her necklace sat in the palm of her claw. She enchanted the earing to warm a little if someone is lying, the tail band to change her blood to blue, and the ring to give her a sturdier build, and snow-white scales with dark blue eyes. Hail picked up her bag, tied it under her wing, and set off to one of the far-reaching ice villages near the SandWing boarder – past the great Ice wall. ~CHAPTER ONE~ Snow trudged through the thick snow outside of the IceWing village. It had been a day since she left the palace, a day since she was supposedly headed for Jade mountain, a day since she’d enchanted her ring to change her appearance… and her name. Dragons trudged passed Snow, not giving her a second glance. She knew where she was going, the dragon she needed to see. A small igloo, made of ice and compacted snow sat on the outer edge of the village. Smoke was billowing out the top of the hut, a warm fire was burning on the inside. Snow trudged up to the door and knocked on it. She heard footsteps inside, and then the door swung open. A SandWing opened the door, gave her one glance, and gave her a knowing look. “Come in Snow.” He said. “Or should I say Hail” He replied in a quiet voice. Hail nodded at him and walked in. She pulled her ring off and tucked it into her bag. Her scales shimmered and then returned to their original appearance. “What is your name?” Hail asked, she knew they would know her name, but she did not know his name. “Hearth” He replied. “If-if you don’t mind, what tribe, or tribes, are you from?” Hail asked. “Well” Hearth said with a smile. “The same as you my friend. I am a dragon of both the IceWing, and the SandWings. If you want to know I hatched on the border of the kingdom of ice and the kingdom of sand. My parents had deserted me – I named myself – an IceWing found me and took care of me. My friend, I am only a year older than you. And the dragon that found me was supposedly dead.” Hail felt her breath stop. A year before she hatched, the day her egg was laid, she was kept hidden with her mother’s sister, Sleet. The day it was laid, when her mother saw it, she knew it would be a girl, the only girl to ever hatch to her mother, the only heir to the throne. But there was a hole in the story. Her father, Storm, disappeared – presumed dead – a month before Hail’s egg was laid. But know-one outside the royal family knew that. In fact, Hail, Snowstorm, Sleet and Queen Blizzard where the only ones who did. And Hail needed to know who her father – her real father – was. “As you probably guessed, you father – your actual father - found me. Well actually, my father never left me, he took me with him. King Parch is my father. Hail, you are my sister.” Hail gapped at Hearth. “But – how?” she stuttered. “When King Storm disappeared, he ran away. He found out that Blizzard was heavy with egg – but it wasn’t his egg. A few weeks earlier, the King of the SandWings had come to visit – on behalf of the queen. King Parch and Queen Blizzard fell in love – a secret love. Storm found out and snapped, Blizzard banished him from the Ice kingdom, and Blizzard told everyone he died. Little did Storm know, Blizzard had had another egg, in secret. A year earlier, Queen Dama and King Parch had come to visit – that was when Blizzard and Parch fell in-love. Parch took the egg back to the Sand kingdom – hoping the dragonet would look like a SandWing more than an IceWing. Luckily, he did.” Hearth paused and gestured to himself “The second egg, as it seems, appeared like an IceWing-” “Almost” Hail interrupted. “Almost looked like an IceWing. I have a gold tint to my scales, and my blood is dark magenta.” Hail muttered. Hearth smiled. “My scales have a silver-blue sheen and my blood is purple.” “Anyway, Storm found out, and he went and hid in the mountains. I had trouble getting here, because I felt like I was being followed. By him.” Hearth explained. “So all my other brothers are only half-brothers?” Hail asked. “Yeah.” Hearth replied. “Why did you come here?” Hail questioned. “Because I knew where you’d go to find answers, I knew that everyone believed in a village half-way between the Ice kingdom and the Sand kingdom there was a hybrid of the two tribes that could answer any of your questions. I knew you would be smart enough to figure out where that was, and no-one else would. Plus, I knew you were invited to Jade Mountain.” Hearth finished. “Where you?” Hail asked. “Yep. I was going to go tomorrow if you didn’t come before then, do you want to go tomorrow?” Hearth asked her. Hail nodded. Hail packed some more food into her bag. “Hearth, can I ask you something?” She called across the room to her brother who was half-asleep on the floor. “Huh!?” He replied, sitting up with a start. “Can I ask you something?” Hail repeated. “Mmm” Hearth mumbled. “Are – do you – are you an Animus?” Hail asked shakily. “Are you?” He asked. Hail thought for a moment, wandering if she should tell him. She finally nodded. “Yes, I am.” Hearth replied. “O-okay.” “We should probably get going, we’ll be lucky to make it to Possibility before dark if we don’t leave now.” Hail shoved some food into her bag as she spoke. Hearth nodded, picked up his bag, and headed for the door. It was still dark outside, good thing for that. Hail and Hearth lifted into the sky. First stop? Possibility. ~CHAPTER TWO~ Possibility was so busy. Hail had placed all her and Hearth’s jewellery in a bag that Hearth enchanted to become invisible when it was worn by either himself or Hail. Soon after they arrived, a dragon rushed up to them. They were a sleek-built SandWing with pale-golden scales, and a fairly torn-up ruff. They had brown freckled dotting their face, as well as their wing-tips. “Hybrids” They-she said in a low whisper “I need you to come with me.” The two ice-sandwing hybrids looked at each other in confusion. “Quickly, please?” The dragon asked. Hail looked cautiously at the dragon, how did she know they were hybrids, both her-self and Hearth had spent their whole lived in the palaces of two queens who – frankly – hated hybrids – well that’s what Hail thought until Hearth told her that her actual father was the King of the SandWings. “Okay.” Hail replied slowly. The dragon nodded and took off into the sky, Hail and Hearth followed as fast as they could. The three dragons landed outside a small house half-an-hours flight from Possibility, closer to Jade Mountain. The SandWing hurried inside. Though the house was quite small, it was nice inside. There were rugs hanging up on the walls, illustrating SandWings, the desert and… Mountains? They continued walking through the hall that led to the main room of the house. A picture hung on the wall that looked like a family picture. Hail quickly identified one of the dragons in the painting to be the SandWing that had bought them here, she was on the very left. On the right of the picture was a SkyWing with red scales and orange transitional scales. He had cream-brown coloured under scales and dark brown spines and horns. He also had orange eyes. But the dragon in the middle was the one that took hail by surprise the most. Though she didn’t have enough time to get a good look at her. “I’m sorry that you had to come here, but I was wondering if you two dragonets were going to Jade Mountain?” The SandWing asked. “Uh yes – but, um, what’s your name? and how did you know we were hybrids?” Hail asked. “Oh! How rude of me. My name is Dama. I could tell you were hybrids because when your daughter is a hybrid, you learn how to spot the tiny differences.” Dama replied. “Is – is your daughter the dragon in the picture? The one in the middle?” Hearth questioned. “Yes. Her name is Solar. I was going to ask you if she could travel with you to Jade mountain, she doesn’t have anyone to go with. Her father is away on a… task.” Dama answered. “Solar!” Dame called out suddenly. “Oh, you can also stay as long as you like, I’ll get some food out soon. And some water.” Dama smiled at them. The sound of talons scraping on the sandstone floor echoed down the hall. Seconds later, a dragon appeared. Her scales were a pretty honey-gold colour. Her crest and the two row of scales closest to her sail where more of an orange-honey colour. She has black freckles dotting the bridge of her snout and her cheeks. All across her body war black scales, not an overly large amount, in random places. Her sail and wing-membranes were a maroon-brown colour. Her iris where a magenta-pink colour but the scleral of her eyes and her pupil were black. Her claws were black and her horns were a light-grey, along with the small nose-horn and spike just under her ear, like a SandWing’s. A massive smile was spread across her face. Wow. Hail caught herself thinking. What? What the, why would I think that? “Hay!” The hybrid chirped at them. “I’m Solar, what’s your names” Solar smiled at them, cocking her head a little to the side. “I’m Hail, this is my brother, Hearth. We’re Sand-Ice hybrids.” Hail replied before her brother could. Wondering why she was so interested in Solar. “Cool! You’ve already met my mum, my Dada is Wedge-tail, he’s a SkyWing. Anyway, are you going to Jade Mountain as well?” Solar questioned. Wow, she was really talkative. “Uh, cool, and – uh – yeah, we are.” Hail replied. “There’s some food on the table, just get some water from the tap. I’ll be back soon.” Dama told them as she moved from the kitchen down a hall across from the one they came in. “Okay, bye mum! Love you!” Solar said, rushing over to her mum and hugging her. “If were gone when you get back, I’ll send you a letter when we arrive.” Solar said to her mother. “Okay sweetie, be safe” “You too!” Solar called to her mother as she walked down the hall and out the door. “Alright! I’ll go pack, we can leave in the morning” Solar told them, walking down the hall. It was early morning when the three dragons took off. After a few hours of flight, the terrain began to change from desert to slopes. Soon they’d reach the mountains. Hail looked over to Solar, who was watching the sun set over the mountains in the distance, the light catching in her eye. She looked happy. Hail’s chest fluttered. She knew this feeling, but she didn’t quite understand it now. Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Content (Sanskrit Sunset) Category:Genre (Romance) Category:Genre (Adventure) Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)